Keeping mystery snails is fun and rewarding. It’s also a fantastic way to add color to a tank. Aquatic snails are low-maintenance creatures with captivating behavior – and watching them is super relaxing. If you want your snail’s personalities to shine, you must provide them with the correct diet and living conditions. They also need suitable tankmates, and you must be careful that they don’t overbreed. To discover more about these colorful mollusks, take a look at these six care tips for mystery snails.
1. Understand Your Mystery Snail
Mystery snails are freshwater invertebrates with swirled shells, and they come in many eye-catching colors, such as yellow, blue, magenta, purple, green, and ivory. They have long antennae and grow to around two inches in diameter, making them among the most substantial aquarium snails. Mystery snails have an operculum, a little door they can use to block access to their shell. They are more active than most snails and are highly entertaining, making them among the best snails for freshwater tanks.
A unique feature of mystery snails is that they have lungs and gills and can breathe in and out of the water. They also have a breathing funnel that extends from their “shoulders.” Mystery snails can stick the funnel above the water to breathe in air. Their inflated lungs help them be buoyant in the water, and they breathe the air out when they want to sink.
2. Keep Snails in a Well-balanced Aquarium
If you keep mystery snails, you must create the ideal habitat. For starters, you need 10 gallons per one to two snails. Mystery snails are tiny but produce lots of waste, making small tanks higher maintenance than large ones. You also need a robust filtration system to help keep the water clean. Snails need mineral-rich water to support their shell growth, and you must have a secure lid on your tank because they can climb out.
Snails need a soft aquarium substrate, and you must add aquarium plants and decor to their tank. Algae grow on the surface of decorations and provide a food source for snails. Snails also like to climb and hide among aquarium plants and decorations. Don’t add snails to a new tank. You can add them after the first cycle, but ideally, the tank should be six months old before introducing snails.
3. Feed Your Snails Veggies and Crustaceans
If you want your snails to thrive, you must feed them the correct diet. These guys are fantastic algae eaters and devour pretty much anything organic, like leftover fish food, dead creatures, and dead plant leaves. Mystery snails get many nutrients from eating tank waste, but it’s not enough to survive. You must feed them at least every other day with algae flakes or snail food.
Mystery snails get stimulated at mealtimes and appreciate vegetable treats, such as calcium-rich kale or spinach once or twice weekly. Snails also benefit from eating small crustaceans like krill or brine shrimp because the calcium helps with shell growth. You must give them a calcium supplement if you don’t feed them crustaceans. Mystery snails don’t eat healthy aquarium plants but will eat dead leaves. If you see them eating healthy plants, you must feed them more as it’s a sign of hunger.
4. Regularly Clean and Monitor Your Aquarium
An essential care tip for keeping snails is to ensure you regularly clean their tank and monitor the chemical parameters. You should deep clean the tank monthly and change 25 percent of the water every two to four weeks. Mystery snails need a temperature of 70 to 78F and a pH of 7.6 to 8.4, and ideally, you should check the parameters daily. You should also provide moderate lighting for 10 to 12 hours daily and test aquarium water for pollutants weekly. Never use salt or copper-based chemicals or medications in their aquarium because salt is toxic to snails.
5. Stock Your Tank with Peaceful Fish
If you want happy, active snails, keep them with the right tankmates. Mystery snails are peaceful inverts and live in harmony with most freshwater fish and aquatic creatures. They can live with many fish but may become shy around boisterous ones, so keep them with peaceful fish, such as neon tetras, corydoras, and rasboras. You shouldn’t keep them with snail-eating species, like puffers or aggressive fish that may nibble on their antennae.
Mystery snails get along with other inverts, crustaceans, and freshwater tank cleaners such as shrimp. Many hobbyists keep shrimp with snails because the shrimp eat snail waste. Mystery snails also live in harmony with other snails, except assassin snails, who kill other species.
6. Monitor Your Tank for Snail Eggs
The last care tip for mystery snails only applies if you have more than one. If you have multiple snails, you must monitor your tank for eggs. A downside to keeping snails is that they can quickly overpopulate a tank. Too many snails can be problematic, so you must keep their numbers in check. Unlike hermaphrodite snails, mysteries can’t reproduce alone, and you don’t need to check for eggs if you only have one.
The good news is that mystery snails lay their eggs out of water and take three to four weeks to hatch. That gives you ample time to spot and remove them. You should also check the tank hood for eggs. Raise the water level of your aquarium to around an inch to 1.5 inches from the top to prevent mystery snails from breeding. If you want to breed mystery snails, lower the tank water and keep a group of at least six to ensure you have plenty of males.
